Kenya - logging the forests

So finally after 5 days of adventurous riding on a motorbike,  I made it back to my temporary basecamp. 

On the tachometer was slightly over thousand km. Considering that for this trip I just got one  day ride to learn by myself how to use a two wheel engine powered machine,  of course no valid driving licence - in Africa is everything possible :),  am honestly content with the result.

It is not the pictures I captured, the length of tje trip or the cheap running  costs that make me look back with good feeling. 

Probably I will remember those moments when in some village where probably a white man was spotted very long time ago,  not only  the kids greeted me with wide open eyes and loud shouting   'mzungu'; 

 those lovely local elderly women who showed me which way the rest of group rode even though they could not speak any English, 

endless discussion with boda-boda drivers why I prefer to walk with my big paraglider and not be able to pay them small fee for; 

watching up close the animals I know in my home country only from zoo, grassing along the dirt road without paying any crazy entrance fee specially high for foreign tourists;

Getting into the air from many sites,  free flying above elephants,  saying hello to  monkeys jumping between trees,  following vultures in the thermals with spectacular landscape underneath 

 

I saw people from several tribes enjoying the natural surroundings living in traditional dwellings.

But very amazed how fast the deforestation proceeds.  Timber being a much needed building resource,  it make sense to use it as it's locally grown. However, planting new trees to grow new crop in 15 - 20 years, it obviously does not bother anyone.

The ex- forest just get covered by  grass to eventually give pasture to cattle. 

The third grade wood lies down on ground,  free for anyone to pick.  

A still intact forest close to Kerio  Valley  escarpment with ' natural fence '

In Kenya countryside many dirt roads are so smooth that riding the maximum speed  (80km/h) is still a comfortable experience.  

However, the narrower and deeper the road lies, the more likely is to end up in tricky single trail. 

Why Chinese invest in building new roads in Kenya? Why they give money for building new schools? 

Explanation from local people was that they want to gain influence in the region.  Well, let's see how it turns eventually out.

V oblastiach ťažby dreva a v okolí píl sú  haldy pilín, zjavne  nevedia jak s nimi nakladať.  

Tety, čo pri ceste vysmážali hranolky na pomerne čiernom oleji, pridávali piliny k drevu do ich malých piecok. 

Píla  skoro na každom kilometri. 

Niektore rubaniská pomaly zarastajú novou  drevinou.

Vysoký a statný stromisko na úpätí Kerio Valley.

Vzorní v sadení stromov - aspoň tých ovocných sa mi zdali miestni farmári.  Avšak pri tom počte kôz a oviec, čo sa potĺkajú po okolí, je nevyhnutnosť mladé stromčeky oplotit.

Vyšší plot s ostnaným drátom je zábranou pre dobytok.